[Barbara Perry, a far-right specialist at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, said far-right groups in Canada have been growing online and offline. She estimates there are about 125 such groups active in Canada.]
By Clothilde Goujard
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Mourners pray in front of
the caskets during a funeral for three of the victims of the
deadly shooting at the
Quebec Islamic Cultural Center in February 2017.
(Chris Wattie/AFP/Getty Images)
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MONTREAL
— Concerned that the tide of
far-right ideology could become mainstream in Canada, Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau’s Liberal government has for the first time earmarked millions of
dollars in the national budget to counter racism.
As far-right movements have gained ground
among many of Canada’s allies, the Liberal government has committed to
providing $23 million Canadian over two years for multicultural programs and
cross-country consultations on racism.
The budget, approved in February, stated that
diversity was a cornerstone of Canadian identity threatened by the rise of
“ultranationalist movements and protests against immigration, visible
minorities and religious minorities.” The new funding will bolster the existing
Multiculturalism Program.
Canada is worried that such ultranationalist
movements could also harbor violent elements. In its annual public report on
the terrorist threat to Canada in December, Public Safety Canada listed
right-wing extremism as a “growing concern” for the first time. While much of
the far-right activity was concentrated online, the report said, there were
risks for physical violence.
In the past year, media have reported less
than a dozen physical assaults motivated by hate. But the memory of the 2017
shooting at a Quebec City mosque that killed six and injured dozens lingers in
Canada. In his trial this week, Alexandre Bissonnette pleaded guilty to six
counts of first-degree murders and six counts of attempted murder.
Police-reported hate crimes have been on the
rise since 2015, according to Statistics Canada. In the latest data available,
in 2016, police-reported hate crimes against Muslim population increased 40
percent compared to 2014. South Asian, Arab and West Asian communities have
also been also increasingly targeted.
“The majority, 61 percent of hate crimes
targeting Muslim populations, were nonviolent,” said Warren Silver, an analyst
at Statistics Canada. “The most common offense was mischief such as vandalism
and graffiti.”
But events abroad, including the rallies in
Charlottesville and the subsequent car attack that killed one and injured 19
others, contributed to a sense that far-right movements needed to be better
understood to prevent potential future violence.
“We've known about the presence of the
extreme right for decades, but suddenly, with the international and national
context, we've seen a fast growth that needs to be addressed now,” said Michel
Juneau-Katsuya, a former intelligence officer specialized in far-right movement
with Canada’s spy agency, CSIS.
The country’s far right ranges from small
neo-Nazi groups to much bigger nationalist groups that promote anti-Islam and anti-migrant
rhetoric online, in demonstrations and at conferences.
Barbara Perry, a far-right specialist at the
University of Ontario Institute of Technology, said far-right groups in Canada
have been growing online and offline. She estimates there are about 125 such
groups active in Canada.
“We’ve seen quite a dramatic shift in the
past year and a half or so,” she said.
Rising nationalist groups have specifically
targeted Muslims and migrants who, they say, threaten Quebec’s and Canada’s
Christian and white identity. Interest in these groups has grown alongside the
rise of far-right political parties in Europe such as the National Front in
France and the political rhetoric coming from the United-States.
“We had some of those fears and then, they
were enabled and emboldened by what came up from the U.S. during Trump’s
campaign and his subsequent election,” Perry said.
In the year after President Trump's election,
more than 20,000 asylum seekers crossed the Canada-U.S. border. Some feared for
their safety in the U.S. while others, such as Haitians, began arriving in June
2017 after the Trump administration announced that their temporary protected
status would end in January.
The surge in asylum seekers spurred fears of
massive unregulated immigration. The Albertan chapter of the paramilitary group
the Three Percenters, an offshoot of the American group, warned it would patrol
the border while some groups in Quebec organized protests attended by several
hundred people in Quebec City and at the border.
In Quebec, far-right groups are having an
outsize effect in places where polls regularly show higher anti-Muslim and
anti-migrant sentiment than in the rest of the country. According to Maxime
Fiset, who works at Quebec’s anti-radicalization center, one of the rising
groups, La Meute (The Wolf Pack) has toned down its hateful messages to appeal
to a wider audience and become a more legitimate voice.
“La Meute was at first exclusively devoted to
fighting Islam,” he said. “Progressively, there’s been a shift in their public
communications. The group is now opposing what they call radical Islam.”
The group claims to have 55,000 followers.
While experts argue there are more likely 5,000 active members, the growing
reach of this far-right group still worries some politicians, including Prime
Minister Trudeau.
He addressed them several times including at
the commemorations of the first anniversary of the Quebec City mosque shooting,
where he referred to them in French as “racists” and “dumdums who walk around
with dog paws on a T-shirt” who contributed to inflaming tensions. La Meute was
not involved in the mosque shooting.
But Trudeau's Liberal Party has warned the
government to tread carefully in its efforts to address racism and nationalism.
A previous motion by the party to condemn Islamophobia last year sparked a
major backlash and outrage in the opposition Conservative party.
“The risk is it sort of feeds into [the far
right’s] victim mentality now they're being targeted by the government,” Perry
said. “It could have a backlash in terms of further entrenching their
positions.”
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